Marauder Mischief
by Eighteen Inches
Summary: There's always a way to help someone get something off their chest...


AN: Written for the "Marauder Challenge" on HPFC. My pairing is Lily/James and I have to make this a Friendship and Comfort fic with this title.

And this is also my first Lily and James fic, so I don't really know how well I did.

Disclaimer: I'm not Joanne Rowling, so I own nothing.

* * *

Marauder Mischief

"Is something wrong?" he asked, looking over at the upset red head sitting by the fire in the Gryffindor Common room.

"It's not important," Lily replied, standing and turning away from him. "Not that you would care anyway."

"And what makes you think that?" James asked.

Lily rolled her eyes, as she turned to face him. She scoffed, "You haven't even bothered learning my first name…or that's what it seems like; because you never use it, so why would you care if something was wrong with me?"

"You've always called me Potter," James told her, "so in return, I've called you Evans…I just thought it was our thing, our trademark, if you will."

"I've called you Potter because you're annoying and get on my nerves half the time," Lily told him.

James frowned and grabbed at his chest, "I'm hurt," he said, dramatically.

Lily rolled her eyes, again, "Don't be so full of yourself."

"Then since you've said that, maybe I shouldn't say what I was planning on saying," James said, running his hand through his hair.

Lily raised an eyebrow, "Oh?" she asked, "and what was that?" she added, crossing her arms over her chest.

"The reason you're upset or whatever you want to call it," James stated, "I'm almost sure it has something to do with me."

Lily just stood there, staring at him.

"It's because of that stupid prank before, I'm sure of it." James added.

"Well, Alice, Allison and Marlene are pretty pissed at you guys," Lily told him, "and Alice is one of the nicest girls that I know…And them being pissed isn't a good thing; especially for Black."

It was James' turn to raise an eyebrow, "What are you talking about now?"

Lily rolled her eyes and gave a small laugh, "You are really thick, aren't you, Potter?" She sighed, "The fact that Marlene has a crush on Sirius…I'm not sure how well that's working out, now."

"I would never have noticed if you hadn't said something,"

"That, Potter, is the reason that you're so thick." Lily told him.

"I'm sorry that I don't understand girls," James said, "It's not like I am one or anything…I don't know what goes on inside your heads."

"The same thing goes for girls when it comes to understanding guys," Lily retorted.

"Touché, Lily."

Lily gave a small smile, "You—you called me Lily."

James smirked, "That's your name isn't it?"

"Yeah; but-but, I was expecting you to call me Evans."

James walked over to the back of the couch to lean against it. Crossing his arms across his chest, he looked up at Lily, not keeping the smirk off his face, "You shouldn't expect the same things from me. You never know when I'm going to do something unexpected."

"I will never understand you," Lily stated.

"I never said you had to, Evans."

"And we're back to not now, are we?"

James shrugged, "I told you never to expect the same thing from me…I do have a right to change what I say."

"Sure, you do." Lily said, "Now if you'll excuse me, I'll be anywhere but here."

Lily started to walk away but James grabbed a hold of her arm, "Wait just a minute. I know I'm not your favorite person in the world because of all the mischief, us 'marauder's' get into. But, I do know when something is bothering you, like now."

Lily pulled her arm away, "Like I said, it doesn't matter. Stop pressing the matter James…Don't you have a prank to plan with Black?"

James shook his head, "That's not important right now, what is, is you…And I can't stay here for as long as you can."

"Then I guess the two of us are sadly going to be stuck in this common forever then," Lily countered.

"Oh, come on, is talking to a master prankster about what's bothering you really that bad?" James asked her.

"When I don't want to talk about it," Lily told him, "Yes, yes it is."

"Alright, I surrender," James replied, "for now."

"Just give it up, Potter." Lily said, before walking away from him and towards the Girl's dormitory.

_I will get it out of you one way or another Evans._ James thought as a mischievous grin appeared on his face, _besides, it'll be better for you to get it off your chest one way or the other…_

* * *

"So where are you going?" Alice asked.

Alice, Allison, Marlene and Lily were sitting on the red couch in front of the roaring fire in the Gryffindor Common Room, talking about that note that Lily had received earlier that afternoon.

Lily looked down at the note she held in her hands.

_Meet me on the Astronomy Tower.  
8 o'clock.  
I need to talk to you.  
It's important._

Lily didn't understand why someone would send her an anonymous note or what was so important that they couldn't just come up and talk to her. The funny thing was, she didn't even recognize the hand writing, and that puzzled her the most.

"Astronomy Tower," Lily said, not looking up.

"Are you going to go?" Allison asked her.

Lily just shrugged, "I don't know…I'm kind of curious as to who it is and why they couldn't just come up to me…"

"Well, we know for a fact that it is most likely a Gryffindor girl," Marlene said, "because we found it on your bed."

"Or a guy got some girl to put it on her bed," Alice offered.

"That too," Alison agreed.

Lily pursed her lips, "Well, I might as well just go and get it over with. I do have to be there in about thirty minutes." she stood up and started towards the portrait hole, "I'll see you three later."

Lily maneuvered herself around the staircases and corridors until she came to the spiral staircase that would take her into the Astronomy Tower. When she got to the top and walked in the doorway and saw no one there, she figured she was just early.

She walked further into the room and spun around quickly when she heard the door shut. Her eyes narrowed some as she stared at none other than James Potter.

"What do you want?" She asked, crossing her arms.

"So you got my note then?" James said, as more of a statement than a question because it was obviously the truth because she was there.

"Th—that was your note?" Lily asked, confused.

"I thought you recognized my hand writing?" James asked, leaning against the door.

Lily rolled her eyes, "What was the point of this?"

"I know that something is bothering you," James told her, not moving from the door, "and you may not care; but I do….it's not good to keep things bottled up like this…and neither one of us is leaving until you talk."

"Sometimes you make me hate you," Lily stated, leaving James with a hurt expression, "But, other times, you do things like this; that I don't know what to think."

"Okay then, what's on your mind?"

Lily turned around and started walking towards the railing that looked off over the grounds. She didn't know that James had followed her until she felt his presence beside her.

"It's complicated," Lily told him, "And I know a lot of people say that; but, this time it's true."

"What?" James asked, leaning backwards against the railing.

Lily gripped the top post as she looked around the grounds, "It's my sister, even from this far away, she still has this hold on me…that even though—"Lily turned to look at him—"I actually don't know how to explain it."

"Why don't you just start from the beginning?" he offered.

"My sister hates me," Lily told him.

"I didn't even know you had a sister," James stated.

Lily nodded.

"But how could she possibly hate you?" James asked.

Lily brought her hands up to her face and rubbed her temple, "When we were little, you couldn't separate us, we did everything together."

"And then what happened?"

"I got my Hogwarts letter," Lily replied, "After that everything just went downhill from there…she called me a freak and all we've done since then is argue and fight, an-and, I'm sick of it." She could feel tears welling at the corner of her eyes. Why? That she didn't know, she didn't even feel sad enough to cry.

"Don't cry over this," James said, placing a hand her shoulder.

"What else do you suggest I do?" Lily asked, although she wasn't sure he even had an answer.

"Why cry over something that you had no control over?" he told her.

Lily looked up at him, "What are you talking about?"

"You had no idea that you would get a Hogwarts letter," James told her, "and you also didn't know how your sister would react to it, none of this is your fault, Lily and you shouldn't feel that way."

Lily looked up at the stars, shining bright in the night sky, "Yeah, maybe you're right…but she's still my sister."

"And who knows, maybe with time, things will be better for you two." He offered.

"Yeah, maybe," Lily said, turning once more to look at him, "thank you for doing this. Seriously, it does feel good to get this off my chest."

"You're welcome," James told her, "and I've proved something to you today."

"And what's that?"

"That my mischievous ways can be used for good," he added, smiling.

Lily playfully slapped his arm, "Oh, shut up…but again, thank you."

A moment of silence passed before either one of them spoke again. James decided he couldn't take the silence anymore.

"Maybe we should get back to the common room before it gets too late and we get yelled at by Filch." James suggested.

Lily nodded, and allowed him to lead her back to Gryffindor Tower. Once in the common room, Lily thanked him once more.

"You don't have to keep doing that, you know," James told her.

"I know; but I don't know when the next time you'll going to do something helpful so this will probably be the only time I'll be able to thank you," Lily joked.

James smirked at her, "Just go to bed."

"Goodnight," Lily said, giving him a quick hug, "see you in the morning."

"Night," he replied, as Lily turned and ran up the Girl's staircase.

_Tonight was a really good night and it was good to get it off my chest, _Lily thought as she changed and climbed into bed, _maybe James isn't that bad after all._

* * *

AN: So, how did I do? Well enough to do these characters justice or did I fail? Please tell me what you thought in a review?


End file.
